Tuesday, 3 January 2012

The Hungry Ghost

We are born as pure consciousness, in time an ego is formed
that comes to inhabit this pure consciousness. The ego is the sum total of all
the knowledge absorbed from birth onwards. The sum total of this knowledge is
made manifest by consciousness. This knowledge that the ego is composed of can
also be seen as a hugely complex system of beliefs. It could be said that
knowledge is just data or information but that belief is something more. Belief
can be likened to desire made manifest. I believe in God can then be translated
as 'I want to believe in God because there is something to be gained by doing
so’. Even the most insane of our beliefs can be translated in this way. There
is always a hidden agenda behind our beliefs in which something is expected to be
gained. It is not necessary that what is gained makes any sense. It is only
necessary that something is desired with the expectation of gaining something.
This is the hungry ghost referred to in Buddhism. The hungry ghost does not
wish to be free it wishes to continue eating or desiring. Usually when it
expresses the wish to be free it is in the hope that somehow it could be free
while continuing to desire. Desire is really the illusory belief that what is
desired will fill me or complete me. The fact that even when our desire is
satisfied it is satisfied for only a moment seems to go unnoticed. We are born
as pure consciousness and this never changes we are always that pure
consciousness. Consciousness is complete, nothing can change it. This is the
great mystery, if consciousness is already complete what is it we are looking
for to complete ourselves. The ego is the sum total of all absorbed knowledge
and belief and is made manifest by consciousness. Because consciousness itself
has no agenda or hidden beliefs it seems to have no substance. On the other
hand the absorbed knowledge and beliefs of the ego appear to have substance and
so this illusory entity is able to ‘squat’ in an apparently empty house. The
house is not empty it is filled with consciousness and even the ego itself
could not exist without this consciousness. Consciousness is not interested in
the delusions of the ego because consciousness itself is always complete.